Administrative information management method of storage network, storage management system and computer program product

ABSTRACT

In a storage network, a number of host computers or management servers storage subsystem are connected, via a management LAN, to a management terminal that manages a storage subsystem and which is connected to a management center via a remote maintenance line. The host computer or management server transmits administrative information to the management terminal via the management LAN. The management terminal transmits the administrative information acquired from the host computer or management server to the management center via the remote maintenance line.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application relates to and claims priority from Japanese PatentApplication No. 2005-134881, filed on May 6, 2005, the entire disclosureof which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an administrative informationmanagement method of a storage network, storage management system andcomputer program product.

2. Description of the Related Art

In recent years, a disk array device or the like has been used as astorage subsystem for managing large volumes of data. A disk arraydevice is configured by arranging a plurality of memory devices in anarray and, for instance, provides a memory area based on RAID (RedundantArrays of Independent Disks). Lately, pursuant to the diffusion of a SAN(Storage Area Network) environment, the integration of storagesubsystems is being rapidly advanced. In a SAN environment, a pluralityof storage subsystems is connected to a plurality of host computers viaa high-speed FC (Fibre Channel) switch, and operation and maintenancecontrol such as the easy management of the SAN configuration, earlyfailure detection and prompt handling thereof, and establishment ofsecurity based on appropriate access control are being sought after.Storage management software for managing a storage network is loadedonto, for instance, a host computer or a dedicated management server.For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H11-167504proposes remote maintenance technology of a server.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Meanwhile, conventionally, when a failure occurs in a storage network, asupport engineer is sent to the local site to analyze the cause offailure and collect failure information. Nevertheless, when the locationof failure is in a remote place such as in a foreign country, the prompthandling of such failure is difficult. Further, when a remotemaintenance line for connecting the host computer and the managementcenter is newly laid down for promptly analyzing the cause of failure atremote locations, this will result in spiraling costs. Moreover, thereare cases where the laying of such remote maintenance line is notdesirable to the clients from the perspective of security.

Thus, an object of the present invention is to propose technology forperforming remote maintenance to a storage network without having to laydown a new remote maintenance line.

With the storage network to which the present invention is employed, aplurality of host computers or a management server is connected, via amanagement communication line, to a management terminal that manages astorage subsystem and which is connected to a management center via aremote maintenance line.

The administrative information management method of a storage networkaccording to the present invention includes a step of transmitting theadministrative information of the host computer or the management serverto the management terminal via the management communication line; and astep of transmitting the administrative information acquired by themanagement terminal from the host computer or the management server tothe management center via the remote maintenance line. Since themanagement communication line has been conventionally used as amaintenance line for connecting the plurality of host computers,management server and management terminal, it is possible to performremote maintenance to the storage network without having to lay down anew line. Here, administrative information includes, for instance,failure information, configuration information, operation information,performance information and so on of the storage network.

The management server, for example, consolidates the administrativeinformation of a plurality of host computers, and transmits suchadministrative information to the management terminal via the managementcommunication line. As a result, since the management of administrativeinformation can be unified, even in cases where the bandwidth of theremote maintenance line is small, for instance, failure information thatis useful in analyzing the failure can be extracted and transmitted tothe management terminal.

The computer program product according to the present invention includesa storage management software. The storage management software causes ahost computer or a management server execute a step for transmittingadministrative information of the host computer or the management serverto a management terminal via a management communication line. Thisstorage management software, for instance, may be installed in the hostcomputer or management server, or may be stored in a recording medium.As such recording medium, for example, the likes of an optical recordingmedium (a recording medium capable of optically reading data such as aCD-RAM, CD-ROM, DVD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, PD, MD or MO), a magneticrecording medium (a recording medium capable of magnetically readingdata such as a flexible disk, magnetic card or magnetic tape) or amemory element (a semiconductor memory element such as a DRAM or aferroelectric memory element such as an FRAM) may be used.

According to the present invention, remote maintenance can be performedto a storage network without having to lay down a new remote maintenanceline.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration of the storage management systemaccording to the present embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a system configuration centered around the storage subsystem;

FIG. 3 is a system configuration of the host computer;

FIG. 4 is a system configuration of the management terminal;

FIG. 5 is a system configuration of the management server;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the processing for collectingfailure information;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the processing for collectingfailure information;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the processing for collectingconfiguration information and the like;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of the processing (push type) forcollecting failure information;

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of the processing (pull type) forcollecting failure information;

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of the processing (push type) forcollecting failure information;

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of the processing (pull type) forcollecting failure information; and

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of the processing (push type) forcollecting failure information.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention are now explained with reference tothe respective drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the schematic configuration of a storagemanagement system 10 according to the present embodiment. The storagemanagement system 10 is a system having a function of monitoring theoccurrence of failures in a storage network (storage subsystem (storagesystem) 800, communication network 170 or other network components), andtransmitting failure information in the case of such failure to amanagement center 900. The storage management system 10 also manages theperformance of a storage subsystem 800 and a host computer 200, andmanages the configuration information of the storage subsystem 800. Thestorage management system 10 is primarily equipped with storagemanagement software (storage management program) 500, a management LAN(management communication line) 410 and a management terminal 160. Thestorage management software 500, for instance, is loaded onto the hostcomputer 200 or a management server 700.

The host computer 200, for example, is a business computer of an ATMsystem of banks or a seat reservation system of airlines, and isspecifically a personal computer, workstation, mainframe computer or thelike. The storage subsystem 800 provides a storage resource to the hostcomputer 200. The data I/O request from the host computer 200 to thestorage subsystem 800 is conducted via a communication network 170. Eachof the storage subsystems 800 is equipped with a management terminal160. The host computer 200, management server 700 and managementterminal 160 are mutually connected via a management LAN (internal LAN)410. Further, the management terminal 160 is connected to the managementcenter via a remote maintenance line 420. Incidentally, there may be oneor a plurality of host computers 200, management servers 700 and storagesubsystems 800, respectively.

The management center 900 is a facility for managing the storagesubsystem 800, communication network 170 and the like. A supportengineer is standing by at the management center 900, and he/shecollects the failure information sent from the storage management system10 and analyzes such failure. As the remote maintenance line 420, forinstance, the likes of an Internet line or telephone line may be used.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the system configuration centered around thestorage subsystem 800. For the convenience of explanation, a singlestorage subsystem 800 is explained. The storage subsystem 800 isprimarily configured from a disk controller 100 and a memory device 300.The disk controller 100, for example, controls the input and output ofdata to and from the memory device 300 according to a command receivedfrom the host computer 200. Further, the disk controller 100, forinstance, performs various processing such as the setting or changing ofconfiguration information of the storage subsystem according to acommand received from the management server 700.

The host computer 200 is communicably connected to the disk controller100 via the communication network 170. As the communication network 170,for example, when a SAN (Storage Area Network) is used, data I/Oprocessing is performed in block units between the host computer 200 andmemory device 300. The communication protocol performed between the hostcomputer 200 and disk controller 100 via the SAN, for instance, is afibre channel protocol.

Needless to say, the host computer 200 and disk controller 100 do nothave to be connected via a SAN, and, for example, may be connected via aLAN (Local Area Network), or may be connected directly without goingthrough any network. When the host computer 200 and disk controller 100are to be connected via the LAN, for instance, communication may beconducted according to TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocol). When the host computer 200 and disk controller 100 are to beconnected directly without going through any network, for example,communication may be conducted according to a communication protocolsuch as FICON (Fibre Connection) (registered trademark), ESCON(Enterprise System Connection) (registered trademark), ACONARC (AdvancedConnection Architecture) (registered trademark), FIBARC (FibreConnection Architecture) (registered trademark) or the like.

The management server 700 is connected to the management terminal 160via the management LAN 410. The management LAN 410, for instance, isconfigured from the Internet, a dedicated line or the like.Communication between the management server 700 and management terminal160 to be conducted via the management LAN 410, for example, is based ona communication protocol such as TCP/IP.

The memory device 300 has a plurality of physical disk drives 330. Thephysical disk drive 330, for instance, is a hard disk drive such as anATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) disk drive, SCSI (Small ComputerSystem Interface) disk drive or fibre channel disk drive. It is alsopossible to configure RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) witha plurality of disk drives arranged in an array. Further, LDEV (LogicalDevice), which is a logical memory area, may also be set in a physicalvolume, which is a physical memory area provided from the physical diskdrive 330.

The disk controller 100 and memory device 300 may be connected directlywithout going through any network, or connected via a network. Or thememory device 300 and disk controller 100 may be configured integrally.

The disk controller 100 has a plurality of channel controllers 110, ashared memory 120, a cache memory 130, a plurality of disk controllers140, a management terminal 160 and a connecting unit 150.

The disk controller 100 communicates with the host computer 200 based onthe communication control of the channel controller 110. The channelcontroller 110 has a communication interface for communicating with thehost computer 200, and has a function for transferring a data I/Ocommand and the like with the host computer 200. Each of the channelcontrollers 110 is connected, together with the management terminal 160,via an internal LAN (shared bus) 151. As a result, a micro program orthe like to be executed by the channel controller 110 can be installedfrom the management terminal 160.

The connecting unit 150 mutually connects the channel controller 110,shared memory 120, cache memory 130, disk controller 140 and managementterminal 160. The transfer of data and commands among the channelcontroller 110, shared memory 120, cache memory 130, disk controller 140and management terminal 160 is conducted via the connecting unit 150.The connecting unit 150, for example, is configured from a crossbarswitch or the like.

The shared memory 120 and cache memory 130 are memory devices to beshared respectively by the channel controller 110 and disk controller140. The shared memory 120 is primarily used for storing configurationinformation and the like of the storage subsystem 800. The cache memory130 is primarily used for temporarily storing data to be read from andwritten into the physical disk 330.

For instance, when the data I/O request that a certain channelcontroller 110 received from the host computer 200 is a write command,such channel controller 110 writes the write command into the sharedmemory 120, and writes the write data received from the host computer200 into the cache memory 130. Meanwhile, the disk controller 140constantly monitors the shared memory 120, and, when the disk controller140 detects that a write command has been written into the shared memory120, it reads the dirty data from the cache memory 130 according to suchwrite command and then destages this onto the physical disk drive 300.

Further, when the data I/O request that a certain channel controller 110received from the host computer 200 is a read command, such channelcontroller 110 checks whether data subject to be read exists in thecache memory 130. Here, when data subject to be read exists in the cachememory 130, the channel controller 110 reads this data from the cachememory 130, and transmits this to the host computer 200. Meanwhile, whenthe data subject to be read does not exist in the cache memory 130, thechannel controller 110 writes the read command in the shared memory 120.The disk controller 140 is constantly monitoring the shared memory 120,and when it detects that a read command has been written into the sharedmemory 120, the disk controller 140 reads data subject to be read fromthe memory device 300 and writes this into the cache memory 130, andwrites into the shared memory 120 to the effect that it wrote the datasubject to be read into the cache memory 130. Then, channel controller110 detects that the data subject to be read has been written into thecache memory 130, reads such data from the cache memory 130, andtransmits this to the host computer 200.

As described above, the transfer of data is conducted between thechannel controller 110 and disk controller 140 via the cache memory 130.Among the data stored in the physical disk drive 330, data to be read orwritten by the channel controller 110 or disk controller 140 istemporarily written into the cache memory 130.

Incidentally, in addition to the configuration of indirectly givinginstructions of writing or reading data from the channel controller 110to the disk controller 140 with the shared memory 120 interveningtherebetween, for instance, a configuration of directly givinginstructions of writing or reading data from the channel controller 110to the disk controller 140 without going through the shared memory 120may also be employed. Or, it is also possible to control the I/O of databy providing the channel controller 110 with the function of the diskcontroller 140.

The disk controller 140 is communicably connected to a plurality ofphysical disk drives 330 storing data, and controls the memory device300. For example, as described above, the disk controller 140 writes andreads data to and from the physical disk drive 330 according to the dataI/O request that the channel controller 110 received from the hostcomputer 200. Each of the disk controllers 140 is connected, togetherwith the management terminal 160, with the internal LAN 151, and iscapable of engaging in mutual communication. As a result, a microprogram or the like to be executed by the disk controller 140 can betransmitted and installed from the management terminal 160.

Incidentally, two or more of the hardware devices among the foregoingchannel controller 110, disk controller 140, connecting unit 150, sharedmemory 120 and cache memory 130 may be configured integrally.

The management terminal 160 is a computer for managing the storagesubsystem 800. The system administrator, by operating the managementterminal 160, for example, is able to set the configuration of thephysical disk drive 330, set the path between the host computer 200 andthe channel controller 110, install a micro program to the executed bythe channel controller 110 or disk controller 140, or perform otheroperations. Here, to set the configuration of the physical disk drive330, for instance, means the expansion or reduction of the physical diskdrive 330, or the change in the RAID configuration (e.g., change fromRAID 1 to RAID 5). Further, the system administrator is also able to usethe management terminal 160 to perform operations of confirming theoperating state of the storage subsystem 800, specifying the site ofmalfunction, and installing the operating system to be executed with thechannel controller 110. These various settings and control may beconducted via the user interface of the management terminal 160.

The management terminal 160 may be built into the disk controller 100,or may be configured externally. Further, the management terminal 160may also be a computer prepared for exclusively managing the diskcontroller 100 and memory device 300, or a versatile computer loadedwith the management function of the storage subsystem 800.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the system configuration of the hostcomputer 200. The host computer 200 is configured from a CPU 201, amemory 202, an interface unit 203, a local disk 204, an input device 205and an output device 206. A business application program 850 and storagemanagement software 500 are stored in the memory 202. The CPU 201performs processing of ATMs of banks based on the application program850 stored in the memory 202, and also manages the storage subsystem800, communication network 170 or other network components based on thestorage management software 500 stored in the memory 202. The interfaceunit 203 is equipped with a communication interface of the managementLAN 410, and a communication interface to be connected to thecommunication network 170. The local disk 204 stores informationrequired upon the host computer 200 performing services, and varioustypes of information required upon managing the storage subsystem 800.The input device 205, for instance, is a keyboard, mouse or the like.The output device 206, for instance, is a display, printer or the like.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the system configuration of the managementterminal 160. The management terminal 160 is configured from a CPU 161,a memory 162, an interface unit 163, a local disk 164, an input device165 and an output device 166. The CPU 161 performs remote maintenance ofthe storage subsystem 800 based on the remote maintenance software 600stored in the memory 162. Details regarding the remote maintenance to beperformed by the management terminal 160 will be described later. Theinterface unit 163 is equipped with a communication interface of amanagement LAN 410 and an internal LAN 151, and has a function forreceiving various management commands issued from the management server700 via the management LAN 410, and a function for accessing theconfiguration information in the shared memory 120 via the internal LAN151. The local disk 164 stores various types of information requiredupon managing the storage subsystem 800. The input device 165, forinstance, is a keyboard, mouse or the like. The system administratorperforms input operations to the input device 165 so as to managementthe storage subsystem 800. The output device 166, for instance, is adisplay, printer or the like.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the system configuration of the managementserver 700. The management server 700 is configured from a CPU 701, amemory 702, an interface unit 703, a local disk 704, an input device 705and an output device 706. The CPU 701 manages the storage subsystem 800and communication network 170 based on the storage management software500 stored in the memory 702. The interface unit 703 is equipped with acommunication interface of the management LAN 410, and is capable oftransmitting various management commands to the management terminal 160via the management LAN 410. The local disk 704 stores various types ofinformation required upon managing the storage subsystem 800. The inputdevice 705, for instance, is a keyboard, mouse or the like. The outputdevice 706, for instance, is a display, printer or the like.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the outline of the failure monitoring andthe failure information collection processing in the management server700. The storage management software 500 is equipped with a remotemaintenance component 510 as a module for performing remote maintenanceof the storage subsystem 800, communication network 170 or other networkcomponents. The remote maintenance component 510 monitors the occurrenceof failures of the storage subsystem 800, communication network 170 orother network components. As failures of the storage subsystem 800, forexample, there is a failure of the hardware (e.g., shared memory 120,cache memory 130, disk controller 140, physical disk drive 330 or thelike) of the storage subsystem 800, failure of the access path betweenthe host computer 200 and channel controller 110 (e.g., read/writefailure, disconnection of the fibre channel, failure of the host busconnecting unit, failure of the network component (switch or hub), amongothers), error in the setting or change of the configuration information(e.g., various tables to be used in disk control) of the storagesubsystem 800, and so on. As failures of the storage management software500 itself, for example, there is an internal error of the storagemanagement software 500, communication error between the manager 500Mand agent 500A described later, communication error between the storagemanagement software 500 and storage subsystem 800, failure of commands(failure of backup, failure of change in configuration), and so on.

When the remote maintenance component 510 detects the occurrence of afailure, it activates a failure information collection module 520,collects failure information 20, and stores this in the local disk 704.As the failure information 20, there is no particular limitation so aslong as it is information to be used in the failure analysis and, forexample, may be log information, or information that has been encoded inadvance for each type of failure. As the timing of collecting failureinformation 20, it is desirable to employ a timing in which the logs donot lap so that the failure information 20 will not run short. As thedestination of storing the failure information 20, for example, thememory 702 may be used. The remote maintenance component 510 stores thefailure information 20 in a specific directory of the local disk 164 ofthe management terminal 160 via the management LAN 410. When there is aplurality of management terminals 160, the failure information 20 may bewritten in the local disk 164 of a predetermined management terminal160, or the failure information 20 may be written in the local disk 164of the management terminal 160 selected at the point of transmittingsuch failure information 20 to the management LAN 410. Since there aremany cases where the remote maintenance line 420 has small bandwidth,when the data volume of failure information 20 is large, it is desirableto extract and transmit only the portion required for the failureanalysis. The remote maintenance software 600 monitors the foregoingspecific directory in prescribed intervals, and detects the occurrenceof a failure with the writing of failure information into such specificdirectory as the turning point. Then, the remote maintenance software600 transmits the failure information 20 to the management center 900via the remote maintenance line 420. At the management center 900,failure analysis is conducted based on the failure information 20, andnecessary measures are taken such as dispatching a support engineer tothe local site as necessary.

Incidentally, the storage management software 500, in addition to theforegoing failure information collection function, for instance, has afunction of managing whether an expected performance (e.g., read/writeperformance) is being exhibited between the host computer 200 andstorage subsystem 800, a function of managing the operationalperformance (e.g., memory usage of the storage management software 500)when the storage subsystem 800 is operated with the storage managementsoftware 500, a function of managing whether the configuration of thestorage subsystem 800 is configured as recommended (e.g., setting ofpair volumes, disk capacity), or the like.

Further, with respect to the failure monitoring and failure informationcollection processing in the host computer 200, these are similar to thefailure management and failure information collection processing in themanagement server 700 described above.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the outline of another example of thefailure information collection processing in the management server 700.Although the remote maintenance component 510 was performing the failuremonitoring with the foregoing failure information collection processing(FIG. 6), in this example, as a result of the user discovering a failureand inputting a failure notification command in the management server700, the remote maintenance component 510 activates the failureinformation collection module 520 and collects the failure information20. In the present invention, the turning point of collecting failureinformation may be the detection of the occurrence of a failure by theremote maintenance component 510, or the discovery of the occurrence ofa failure by a user. Since the other processing steps after theoccurrence of a failure is detected are the same as with the foregoingfailure information collection processing (FIG. 6), the detailedexplanation thereof is omitted.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the outline of the processing of the storagemanagement software transmitting various types of information that itmanages (configuration information, operation information, performanceinformation or the like) to the management center 900 according to therequest from the management center 900. The storage management software500 manages various types of information such as configurationinformation, operation information, performance information and so on ofthe storage subsystem 800, host computer 200, communication network 170or other network components (switch, hub, or the like). Suchinformation, for example, may be stored in the local disk 704, andnecessary information may be transmitted to the management center 900according to the request from the management center 900. In order toextract such information stored in the local disk 704, the managementcenter 900 foremost logs onto the management terminal 160 via the remotemaintenance line 420, and requests the transmission of information.Then, the management terminal 160 (specifically, the remote maintenancesoftware 600) accesses the management server 700 via the management LAN410, and requests the acquisition of information requested from themanagement server 900. Then, the management server 700 (specifically,the storage management software 500) sorts information requested fromthe management center 900 among the various types of information storedin the local disk 704, and transmits this to the management terminal 160via the management LAN 410. The management terminal 160 forwards theinformation received from the management server 700 to the managementcenter 900 via the maintenance line 420.

Next, the push-type failure information collection processing andpull-type failure information collection processing are additionallyexplained with reference to FIG. 9 to FIG. 13. The foregoing storagemanagement software 500 can be classified into an agent 500A and amanager 500M. The agent 500A, for instance, is installed in the hostcomputer 200. The agent 500A, in addition to monitoring the failure ofthe host computer 200 and collecting failure information, it alsomonitors the failure of the storage subsystem 800 and collects failureinformation via the communication network 170. The agent 500A transmitsthe collected failure information to the manager 500M. Meanwhile, themanager 500M, for instance, is installed in the management server 700.By communicating with the agent 500A loaded onto the host computer 200,the manager 500M monitors the failure of the host computer 200 andcollects failure information, as well as monitors the failure thestorage subsystem 800 and collects information via the management LAN410. The manager 500M consolidates the failure information of theplurality of host computers 200 and storage subsystem 800, and unifiesthe management thereof.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the outline of the push-type failureinformation collection processing. When each of the agents 500Ainstalled in the respective host computers 200 detects the occurrence ofa failure, after temporarily storing the failure information in thelocal disk 204, it individually transmits the failure information to themanagement terminal 160 via the management LAN 410, and performs writeprocessing of failure information in a specific directory of themanagement terminal 160. When the manager 500M installed in themanagement server 700 detects the occurrence of a failure, aftertemporarily storing the failure information in the local disk 704, ittransmits the failure information to the management terminal 160 via themanagement LAN 410, and performs write processing of failure informationin a specific directory of the management terminal 160 independentlyfrom the respective agents 500A. When there is a plurality of managementterminals 160, each of the agents 500A and manager 500M may select themanagement terminal 160 to which the failure information is to be senton a case-by-case basis, or transmit the failure information to apredetermined management terminal 160. When the remote maintenancesoftware 600 detects the writing of failure information in a specificdirectory of the management terminal 160, it transmits failureinformation to the management center 900 via the remote maintenance line420 on a case-by-case basis.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the outline of the pull-type failureinformation collection processing. When each of the agents 500Ainstalled in the respective host computers 200 detects the occurrence ofa failure, it temporarily stores the failure information in the localdisk 204. Similarly, when the manager 500M installed in the managementserver 700 detects the occurrence of a failure, it temporarily storesthe failure information in the local disk 704. As the destination forstoring the failure information, for instance, a specific directory ofthe local disks 204, 704 is preferably used. The remote maintenancesoftware 600 installed in the management terminal 160 periodicallyaccesses a specific directory of the local disks 204, 704 via themanagement LAN 410, and, when the remote maintenance software 600detects the update of the failure information stored in such directory,it acquires the latest failure information, and transmits this to themanagement center 900.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the outline of the push-type failureinformation collection processing. What is different from the push-typeprocessing illustrated in FIG. 9 is that the failure informationacquired by each of the agents 500A is once consolidated by the manager500M, and then managed uniformly. The manager 500M not only manages thefailure information that it detected, it also manages the failureinformation detected by each of the agents 500A. When the manager 500Macquires the failure information from each of the agents 500A, it writesthe failure information in a specific directory of the managementterminal 160 via the management LAN 410. When the remote maintenancesoftware 600 detects the writing of failure information in a specificdirectory of the management terminal 160, it transmits the failureinformation to the management center 900 via the remote maintenance line420 on a case-by-case basis.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing the outline of the pull-type failureinformation collection processing. What is different from the pull-typeprocessing illustrated in FIG. 10 is that the failure informationacquired by each of the agents 500A is once consolidated by the manager500M, and then managed uniformly. The manager 500M not only stores thefailure information that it detected in a specific directory of thelocal disk 704, it also stores the failure information detected by eachof the agents 500A in a specific directory of the local disk 704, andmanages this uniformly. When the remote maintenance software 600installed in the management terminal 160 periodically accesses aspecific directory of the local disk 704 via the management LAN 410 anddetects the update of failure information stored in such directory, itacquires the latest failure information and transmits this to themanagement center 900.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the outline of the push-type failureinformation collection processing. What is different from the push-typeprocessing illustrated in FIG. 9 is that the failure informationdetected by each of the agents 500A and the manager 500M is directlystored in a specific directory of the local disk 164 of the managementterminal 160. When the management terminal 160 uniformly manages thefailure information detected by each of the agents 500A and the manager500M detects the update of failure information stored in a specificdirectory of the local disk 164, it acquires the latest failureinformation and transmits this to the management center 900 via theremote maintenance line 420.

1. A method for managing administrative information of a storage networkin which a host computer or a management server is connected, via amanagement communication line, to a management terminal that manages astorage subsystem and which is connected to a management center via aremote maintenance line, the method comprising the steps of:transmitting the administrative information of said host computer orsaid management server to said management terminal via said managementcommunication line; and transmitting the administrative informationacquired by said management terminal from said host computer or saidmanagement server to said management center via said remote maintenanceline.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said management serverconsolidates the administrative information of a plurality of said hostcomputers and transmits said administrative information to saidmanagement terminal via said management communication line.
 3. A storagemanagement system, comprising: a management terminal for managing astorage subsystem and which is connected to a management center via aremote maintenance line; a host computer for using a storage resourceprovided from said storage subsystem; a management server for managingsaid storage subsystem; and a management communication line forconnecting said host computer, said management server and saidmanagement terminal; wherein said host computer or said managementserver transmits administrative information to said management terminalvia said management communication line, and said management terminaltransmits the administrative information received from said hostcomputer or said management server to said management center via saidremote maintenance line.
 4. The storage management system according toclaim 3, wherein said management server consolidates the administrativeinformation of a plurality of said host computers and transmits saidadministrative information to said management terminal via saidmanagement communication line.
 5. A computer program product having astorage management software to be loaded onto a host computer or amanagement server connected, via a management communication line, to amanagement terminal that manages a storage subsystem and which isconnected to a management center via a remote maintenance line, whereinsaid storage management software causes said host computer or saidmanagement server execute a step of transmitting administrativeinformation of said host computer or said management server to saidmanagement terminal via said management communication line.
 6. Thecomputer program product according to claim 5, wherein said storagemanagement software further causes said management server execute a stepof consolidating the administrative information of a plurality of hostcomputers and transmitting said administrative information to saidmanagement terminal via said management communication line.